in foreign policy you start a war. >> a familiar face with very wise words. let's get right to our panel. in washington pulitzer prize winning columnist for "the washington post" eugene robinson and michael o'hanlon, senior fellow with the 21st century defense initiative. two men better equipped for today i could not find. eugene, you have been a foreign correspondent in places as far afield as argentina and europe. you know the middle east. mitt romney says he wants to arm the syrian rebels with serious amounts of military hardware. i ask you, eugene, is america ready and willing to start a proxy war with iran on the road to damascus? >> well, good question, and first of all, i think you have to ask given the way romney has changed his policy in various areas, you have to ask is he serious about that. but if he is, that's the one sort of bit of news that came out of his speech today. it's not as if we're not already at least assisting in the arming of the rebels. there was an intelligence finding by president obama that said we could give covert aid essentia